University of Minnesota Twin Cities
College of Veterinary Medicine
Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences

PI: Kent M. Reed

Genetic selection for muscle growth and muscling in turkeys has altered many characteristics of the bird including muscle composition and meat quality. This Principal Investigator has provided some evidence to show that these alterations are likely to have occurred through changes in gene regulation. The hypothesis of this project was that developmental changes in growing skeletal muscle result from differential gene expression in muscle tissue. Skeletal muscle plays a major role in determining muscle growth and meat quality. The goals of this project were to identify and assess differential gene expression at different developmental stages between two genetic turkey lines. Furthermore, the candidate genes were used for transfection studies and were genetically mapped.